What would it take for you to join an angry and emotional mob, shout and raise your fists, march and carry on? I’m not talking about joining 68,000 others at Lumen field to show your support for, or opposition to, the Seahawks. I’m talking about a social cause, a political cause, what for you is a just cause. A few gather to air a grievance, to protest an injustice, and then others come out of the woodwork and march with them, shout shared slogans, and demonstrate the power found in large numbers. What would make you so hot and bothered that you’d start, or join, a riot?

If you haven’t taken part in a riot… have you ever turned down the wrong road and been surrounded by an unruly and dangerous mob? In our passage this morning Paul, after two peaceful years in Ephesus, found himself in just such a situation. A silversmith, Demetrius, got so fired up, he rallied others to attack the Christians, and Paul. Threats and accusations spread rapidly. The mob in Ephesus grew, their anger too. For the original instigator, and his collaborators, Paul and his band of Christians were causing too much trouble, even threatening their pocketbooks. If you were a Christian in Ephesus at that time… what would you have done?